Die Herrenausstatterin

“Mariana Leky’s "Die Herrenausstatterin" is the most enchanting and funniest love story for a long time. And it is infinitely sad.” Taz

“The little story thought up by Mariana Leky is comical and sad, eerie and human, grotesque and touching, and particularly intriguing.” Süddeutsche Zeitung

“... a book of fairy tales for everyone who in fact really hates fairy tales; a wonderful, effortlessly written and poetically dodgy, surreal novel about loneliness: clever and touching, it makes you laugh and sigh.” Kulturspiegel

“Leky’s uplifting and highly entertaining novel strikes a comfortable balance between the real and the fantastic, the tragic and the surreal, to tell an emotionally rich and readable story of one woman’s attempts to rebuild her life. (…) With consummate skill and ingenuity, Leky successfully binds these real and unreal elements together, drawing the reader through a story full of warmth, humour and invention to a ‘happy ending’ that is poignant, too. (…) a brilliant and original voice.”
new books in german spring 2010

The day when first a criminal fireman came to visit. And then a shy ghost. A hot adventure is sure to follow

The world blurs before Katja Wiesberg’s eyes. After a retina operation, everything looks washed-out; she looses her job as a translator – and soon her husband, too. Katja is alone.
All of a sudden an elderly gentleman is sitting on the edge of her bathtub and introduces herself as Dr. Blank. He is the ghost of her deceased neighbour. He really wants to appear to his widow, but he is too timid. And another man shows up at Katja’s home: A fireman stands at night in front of her door, claiming to be responding to an alarm – and doesn’t leave. With equally disarming as well as encroaching familiarity, Armin lodges himself in Katja’s life. She only gradually recognizes how good he is for her: a petty crook who loves karate movies is just the type of man she needs to bring her back down to earth. But when he convinces Katja to travel to Holland with him, Dr. Blank joins them. An adventurous love triangle takes its course with a more than self-confident lover and a wise dead man who unfortunately can only be seen by Katja. Mariana Leky’s novel seduces the reader into a world that is simultaneously more comic and more tragic is than our own – and also ghostly human.